A voter arrives at Congregation B’nai Israel, the polling place for Rumson districts 4 and 5, early Tuesday. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Election Day 2013 on the Green began with a computer issue in Rumson.
Borough Administrator Tom Rogers told redbankgreen that Monmouth County election officials sent him a defective computer used to tally votes.
The computer is designed to read voting-machine cartridges containing vote tallies, but the one his office received from the county clerk didn’t work and had to be sent back for repair or replacement, Rogers said, as voters began lining up for the start of voting at Congregation B’nai Israel on Ridge Road.
Rogers said if he didn’t get an operating computer by the end of the day, he’d have to drive the cartridges to a county facility outside Freehold tonight.
Either way, unofficial vote tallies should still be available shortly after the voting machine results are added up at each polling station and posted for public inspection after polls close at 8 p.m., he said.
Rumson has six districts voting at three locations.
Among the contest they’ll decide: which two candidates will get three-year terms on the borough council. Incumbent Republican Joe Hemphill and running mate Laura Atwell, a member of the zoning board, face Democrats Michael Steinhorn and Philip Wagner on the ballot. An eleventh-hour write-in drive for Tim McCooey and Tom Ridgway is also underway.
